Paper-based control of computer systems

ABSTRACT

Digital data is steganographically encoded in printed materials, and—when sensed by an appropriately-equipped webcam or other imaging device—can be used to link to associated electronic resources. Data hidden in a business card, for example, may enable linking to a person&#39;s electronic calendar—showing the person&#39;s schedule availability. Likewise, data hidden in a corporate ID badge may serve to unlock doors at a corporate office, or to enable access to corporate computers. Many other such applications are detailed.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending applicationSer. No. 09/130,624, filed Aug. 6, 1998, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 08/508,083 filed Jul. 27, 1995 (now U.S. Pat. No.5,841,978).

This application is also a continuation-in-part of copending applicationSer. No. 09/186,962, filed Nov. 5, 1998, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 08/649,419, filed May 16, 1996 (now U.S. Pat. No.5,862,260), which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.08/637,531, filed Apr. 25, 1996 (now U.S. Pat. No.5,822,436).

The subject matter of this application is generally related to that inall of the assignee's other patents and applications, e.g., U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,841,886, 5,832,119, 5,822,446 and 5,841,978, and the applicationentitled Methods and Systems Employing Digital Watermarking, filed oneven date herewith.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to use of printed documents to controlcomputer systems. Exemplary documents include business cards,advertisements, and identification badges, but the invention is not solimited.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Over the past century, business cards have formed part of businessritual. Functionally, they serve as a record of an encounter, and detailmeans by which the giver may be contacted (address, phone, etc.).

Business cards have changed, essentially, not at all in response to theadvent of computers. Some accommodation has been made for business cardson the computer side, in the form of specialized scanner and opticalcharacter recognition tools by which textual data printed on cards canbe read and entered into personal productivity software tools (e.g.contact managers, address books, datebooks, personal informationmanagers, etc.). However, the data transferred into the personalproductivity software is static and unchanging.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the textualinformation on a business card is supplemented withsteganographically-encoded, multi-bit binary data. This latter data doesnot significantly distract from the visual aesthetics of the card (aswould a bar code or the like), yet can be used by an associated computerto initiate a link to an internet site corresponding to the businesscard giver. At the site, the recipient of the card may gain access tothe giver's schedule, and other information that changes over time.(Such information may not generally be available over the internet topersons without the card data.)

The foregoing and additional features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more readily apparent from the following detaileddescription, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of a process according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Digital watermarking is a quickly-growing field of endeavor, and manytechniques are known. Generally, all seek to steganographically conveymulti-bit data ancillary to some other signal or medium.

The present assignee's prior application Ser. No. 09/127,502, filed Jul.31, 1998, shows techniques by which very fine lines can be printed on amedium to slightly change the medium's apparent tint, while alsoconveying digital data. Commonly-owned application Ser. No. 09/074,034,filed May 6, 1998, details how the contours of printed imagery can beadjusted to convey digital data. (That technique can be applied toprinted text characters, as well as the line art imagery particularlyconsidered.) Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,481 details how the surfaceof paper or other media can be textured to convey optically-detectablebinary data. Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,841,886, 5,809,160, and thepriority applications detailed above, detail various techniques forsteganographically encoding photographs and other imagery.

Three papers by Brassil et al show other techniques for conveyingwatermark data by slight changes to printed text, “Electronic Markingand Identification Techniques to Discourage Document Copying,”Proceedings of INFOCOM '94 Conference on Computer, IEEE Comm. SocConference, Jun. 12-16, 1994, pp. 1278-1287; “Hiding Information inDocument Images,” November, 1995, 7 pages, AT&T Bell LaboratoriesTechnical Report (available at ciss95_ps.z fromftp://ftp.research.att.com/dist/brassil/1995/ciss95.ps.Z.; and “DocumentMarking and Identification using Both Line and Word Shifting,” INFOCOM'95 (available atftp://ftp.research.att.com/dist/brassil/1995/infocom95.ps.Z).

The foregoing is just a sampling of the large literature onwatermarking. The artisan is presumed to be familiar with such art, allof which is generally suitable for use with the novel concepts detailedbelow.

In accordance with any of the known watermarking techniques, a businesscard is steganographically encoded with plural bit data. At least partof this data identifies an internet address or web site at which dataabout the giver of the card is stored. If sufficient bits can be encodedinto the business card, the address can be encoded literally, e.g., byASCII or binary numeric encoding. Alternatively, to reduce the datapayload, an abbreviated form of address. One example of such anabbreviated form is a Unique Identifier (UID) which can be, e.g., a24-bit value.

Desirably, the steganographic encoding is tailored to facilitatedecoding in the presence of arbitrary rotation or scale distortion ofthe card introduced during scanning. (Some such techniques are shown,e.g., in applicant's related patents identified above. Others are knownto artisans.)

As shown in FIG. 1, the card is scanned (e.g., by use of conventionalopto-electronic devices, such as a scanner or a digital camera). Theoutput data is then optionally processed to account for any skew orscale factor. The plural-bit digital data is then decoded and stored,e.g., in personal productivity software.

(Although not particularly shown in FIG. 1, it is expected that thedetailed process will often be supplemental to known OCR-reading ofbusiness cards, and entry of the textual data into personal productivitysoftware. That is, the scan data is processed both by OCR techniques,and by steganographic decoding techniques, and the results of bothoperations stored in a data structure or other memory for laterreference.)

The steganographically-decoded plural-bit data is provided to a webbrowser or other internet appliance and used to initiate a link to aremote computer over the internet's network of computers. If the remoteaddress was literally encoded in the business card, that address is useddirectly. If an abbreviated form of address was encoded, an additionalstep may be required.

If a UID was encoded in the card, rather than a literal address, the webbrowser might consult an index to correlate the UID to an address. Theindex could be a table or other data structure stored on the user'slocal computer, but more commonly is a remote name server database towhich the browser links as a default when processing business card UIDs.Data obtained from the index is then used to complete the linking to theultimate destination. (In addition to reducing the business cardpayload, such linking through an index, e.g., by a UID, offersflexibility in that the ultimate destination can be moved to otherserver sites as needed, with just a simple update to the index.Alternatively, all business cards encoded with the former address wouldbe rendered obsolete if the site were relocated.)

At the ultimate site, the user is presented with whatever informationthe business card giver chooses to provide, including biographicalinformation, photos, promotional offers or advertisements relating tothe card-giver's business (or relating to enterprises to whom thecard-giver has rented screen space), etc., etc. In one embodiment, thegiver's site is linked to the giver's personal productivity tool(s) andpermits viewing, e.g., of calendar information (showing where thebusiness card giver is scheduled to be today, or for the rest of theweek, month, etc.)

Typically, this calendar information is not available to casual webbrowsers; the steganographically decoded data from the business cardincludes some authentication data (akin to a password) that permitsaccess to otherwise restricted data. This authentication data can takethe form of a web page address to which no publicly-accessible linkpoints, a password that is separately presented to the web server by theuser's browser after a link is established, or other known technique.

In one form of the invention, the giver of business cards may haveseveral differently-encoded cards, each with a different level of accessauthorization. Thus, some cards may access a biographical page withoutany calendar information, other cards may access the same or differentpage with access enabled to today's calendar, and still other cards mayaccess the same or different page with access enabled for thecard-giver's complete calendar.

The reference to business cards and personal calendars is illustrativeonly. The invention is more widely applicable. Going back a century,“calling cards” were used by persons whose interests were strictlysocial, rather than business. The principles of the present inventioncan similarly be applied. Teenagers can carry small cards that can beexchanged with new acquaintances to grant access to private dossiers ofpersonal information, favorite music, artwork, video clips, etc. Thecards can be decorated with art or other indicia that can serve purposeswholly unrelated to the linking data steganographically encoded therein.

Even the “card” paradigm is too restrictive. The same techniques can beapplied to any object. A music CD cover can be encoded to point to apromotional site associated with the music artist. A book jacket canlink to a similar site. Printed advertising distributed through the USmail (cards, magazines, etc.) can be encoded to point to relatedweb-based promotional sites. (Sponsors of such advertising or othersites can reward visits to their internet site by issuing visitorsdigital tokens or coupons that can be redeemed for premiums, cash-back,etc., either for any such visit, or only if the visit was effectedthrough the portal of a steganographically-encoded printed medium.)

Many contexts arise in which data to be presented to a consumer isvaluable only if timely. The postal service mail is ill-suited for somesuch information due to the latency between printing a document, and itsultimate delivery to a recipient. The principles of the presentinvention allow the recipient to take a steganographically-encoded dataobject (card, etc.) that was printed well before delivery, and use it onreceipt to receive up-to-the-minute information. (In this and otherembodiments, the steganographically-encoded data can also include datauniquely identifying the recipient/user, so the web site can presentdata customized to that user.)

The present technology also has application in access control systems.An identification badge (either with photo or graphics, or with textalone) can be encoded with steganographically access control data (e.g.,access codes or digital keys) that is recognized byoptical-scanner-equipped locks and the like, permitting access byauthorized persons to restricted areas or restricted services (e.g.,computer privileges). Given the low cost of media and printing (ascompared with other access control technologies), the cards can beissued on a daily, weekly, or other frequent interval, and the accesscontrol system can be programmed to permit access in response to suchcards only for the pre-set limited period. Lost cards soon lose theirthreat.

Tickets to sporting events, concerts, and other events can besteganographically encoded to permit the bearer to access premium webcontent available only to those who have purchased tickets (e.g., anon-line text-, audio-, or video-chat session with the featured performeror sports star the day before the event). Alternatively, the encodeddata may link to a transactional site. In some such embodiments, theticket is printed with a nominal show data and seat assignment, but alsoincludes a UID in addition to the encoded address of an associatedtransactional ticket site. The user then can visit the transactional website to change seating (or date). On attending the event, the consumerpresents the ticket to a steganographic decoder apparatus that discernsthe UID and looks up the seat assignment most-recently picked by theconsumer. It then prints a chit entitling the consumer to take the seatearlier selected on-line.

The reference to “scanning” of objects naturally brings to mind imagesof desktop flatbed scanners, or multi-function hydra devices. While suchdevices can be used—together with convention digital cameras (includingvideo cameras)—the inventors foresee that image input devices will soonbe much more commonplace. The provision of digital cameras as built-incomponents of certain computers (e.g., the Sony Vaio laptops) is justone manifestation of this trend. Another is camera-on-a-chip systems, astypified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,126 and detailed in Nixon et al.,“256×256 CMOS Active Pixel Sensor Camera-on-a-Chip,” IEEE J. Solid-StateCircuits, Vol. 31(12), pp. 2046-2051 (1996), and Fossum, “CMOS ImageSensors: Electronic Camera-on-a-Chip,” IEEE Transactions of ElectronDevices, vol. 44, No. 10, October 1997. Still another is head-mountedcameras (as are presently used in some computer-augmented visionsystems). These and other image input devices can all be used inconnection with the present invention.

To facilitate embodiments of the present invention, a prior artcamera-on-a-chip system can be modified to also include a steganographicwatermark detector on the same semiconductor substrate. Such a chip—inaddition to providing image output data—can also analyze the image datato discern any steganographically encoded data, and producecorresponding output data. (Again, such analysis desirably includescorrection for scale and rotation factors, so precise positioning of theobject being “read” is not essential for correct decoding.)

To provide a comprehensive disclosure without unduly lengthening thisspecification, applicants incorporate by reference the patents,applications, and publications identified above, except Ser. Nos.09/186,962; 08/649,419 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,260): and Ser. No.08/637,531 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,436).

Having described an illustrated the principles of our invention withreference to illustrative embodiments, it should be recognized that theinvention is not so limited.

For example, while certain of the embodiments were illustrated withreference to an internet-based embodiment, the same techniques aresimilarly applicable to any other computer-based system. Likewise, forinternet-based embodiments, the use of web browsers and web pages is notessential; other digital navigation devices and other on-line datarepositories can be similarly accessed.

In view of the many embodiments to which the principles of our inventionmay be applied, it should be recognized that the detailed embodimentsare illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope ofour invention. Rather, we claim as our invention all such embodiments asfall within the scope and spirit of the following claims, andequivalents thereto.

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: presenting a business card of anindividual to an optical sensor, the optical sensor producing outputdata; decoding steganographically-encoded plural-bit data from thesensor output data; and using said plural-bit data to establish a linkto an internet address having data relating to the proprietor of saidbusiness card.
 2. The method of claim 1 which includes obtaining fromsaid internet site calendar data detailing certain activities of theindividual.
 3. The method of claim 2 in which the amount of calendardata obtained depends on an authorization level.
 4. The method of claim3 in which the authorization level is reflected in the plural-bit dataencoded in the individual's business card, wherein an individual candistribute differently-encoded cards to different recipients, to grantthe recipients different access rights to said calendar data.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 in which the optical sensor is a business card readerthat also serves to input textual information from business cards into apersonal information manager.
 6. The method of claim 5 which includesstoring an internet address discerned from thesteganographically-encoded plural-bit data into said personalinformation manager.
 7. The method of claim 1 in which the opticalsensor is a digital camera.
 8. The method of claim 7 in which thedigital camera is mounted to a computer display device.
 9. The method ofclaim 7 in which the digital camera is head-mounted on a user thereof.10. The method of claim 1 in which the decoding includes sensing asubliminal graticule signal.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein thedecoding includes discerning an apparent rotation of the sensor outputdata from an original orientation of the encoding, and compensatingtherefor.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the decoding includesdiscerning an apparent scaling of the sensor output data from anoriginal scale of the encoding, and compensating therefor.
 13. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the decoding includes discerning an apparentscaling of the sensor output data from an original scale of theencoding, and compensating therefor.
 14. A method comprising: presentinga printed promotion to an optical sensor at a first site, the opticalsensor producing output data; decoding steganographically-encodedplural-bit data from the sensor output data; using said data toestablish a link to an internet site relating to a company, product, orservice promoted by said printed promotion; and transferring to from theinternet site to the first site additional information relating to saidcompany, product, or service.
 15. The method of claim 14 in which thedecoding includes sensing a subliminal graticule signal.
 16. The methodof claim 14 wherein the decoding includes discerning an apparentrotation of the sensor output data from an original orientation of theencoding, and compensating therefor.
 17. The method of claim 16 whereinthe decoding includes discerning an apparent scaling of the sensoroutput data from an original scale of the encoding, and compensatingtherefor.
 18. The method of claim 14 wherein the decoding includesdiscerning an apparent scaling of the sensor output data from anoriginal scale of the encoding, and compensating therefor.
 19. A methodcomprising: presenting a printed identification badge to an opticalsensor, the optical sensor producing output data corresponding tooptical characteristics of the face of said badge; decodingsteganographically-encoded plural-bit data from the sensor output data;checking the plural-bit data to determine whether it corresponds to avalid access card; and unlocking a lock depending on the outcome of theforegoing checking operation.
 20. The method of claim 19 in which thedecoding includes sensing a subliminal graticule signal.
 21. The methodof claim 19 wherein the decoding includes discerning an apparentrotation of the sensor output data from an original orientation of theencoding, and compensating therefor.
 22. The method of claim 21 whereinthe decoding includes discerning an apparent scaling of the sensoroutput data from an original scale of the encoding, and compensatingtherefor.
 23. The method of claim 19 wherein the decoding includesdiscerning an apparent scaling of the sensor output data from anoriginal scale of the encoding, and compensating therefor.
 24. Abusiness card comprising a substrate with printing thereon,characterized in that the printing includes a steganographic patternencoding plural-bit auxiliary data, said pattern not being evident uponhuman inspection but being discernable by visible light scanning of thecard and processing the scan data produced thereby.
 25. The card ofclaim 24 wherein the same printing that conveys the steganographicpattern also conveys information evident upon human inspection.
 26. Thecard of claim 25 wherein the steganographic pattern has a strength thatvaries across the business card in accordance with local characteristicsthereof, so as to aid concealment of the encoding.
 27. The card of claim26 wherein the steganographic pattern has a strength that varies acrossthe business card in accordance with local characteristics thereof, soas to aid concealment of the encoding.
 28. The card of claim 20 whereinthe steganographic pattern substantially spans the business card ratherthan being localized in one excerpt thereof.